Gay lover of whistle-blowing journalist detained at Heathrow Airport for more than nine hours

It's
being viewed as an act of intimidation against a journalist who dared
to report the truth of U.S. surveillance against its own citizens.
Reporter Glenn Greenwald with the Guardian newspaper in the U.K.
interviewed whistleblower Edward Snowden in regards to the tactics
employed by the National Security Administration. Now - Greenwald's gay
lover David Miranda, on his way home to his native Brazil has been
detained at London's Heathrow Airport for over nine hours under a
provision of the Terrorism Act.

Glenn Greenwald, left recently had his gay lover David Miranda, right, detained at London's Heathrow Airport for over nine hours under a provision of the Terrorism Act.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Miranda, who lives with Greenwald, was returning from a trip to Berlin when he was stopped by officers and told that he was to be questioned under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 -- which only applies only at airports, ports and border areas. The measure allows officers to stop, search, question and detain individuals.

Twenty-eight-year-old Miranda was held for nine hours, the maximum the law allows before officers must release or formally arrest the individual. The vast majority of examinations under schedule 7, over 97 percent last less than an hour, and only one in 2,000 people detained are kept for more than six hours.

Greenwald has written a series of stories since June revealing the NSA's electronic surveillance programs, detailed in thousands of files passed to him by Snowden.

Miranda had been in Berlin visiting Laura Poitras, the U.S. film-maker who has also been working on the Snowden files with Greenwald and the Guardian. The Guardian paid for Miranda's flights.

"This is a profound attack on press freedoms and the news gathering process," Greenwald said. "To detain my partner for a full nine hours while denying him a lawyer, and then seize large amounts of his possessions, is clearly intended to send a message of intimidation to those of us who have been reporting on the NSA and GCHQ. The actions of the U.K. pose a serious threat to journalists everywhere.

"But the last thing it will do is intimidate or deter us in any way from doing our job as journalists. Quite the contrary: it will only embolden us more to continue to report aggressively."

The U.K. government said it would reduce the maximum period of detention to six hours last month. Officials also promised a review of the operation on schedule 7 amid concerns it unfairly targets minority groups and gives individuals fewer legal protections than they would have if detained at a police station.

The government of Brazil issued a statement in which it expressed its "grave concern" over the detention of one of its citizens and the use of anti-terror legislation.

"This measure is without justification since it involves an individual against whom there are no charges that can legitimate the use of that legislation. The Brazilian government expects that incidents such as the one that happened to the Brazilian citizen today are not repeated," the Brazilian government said in a statement.

Pope Francis Prayer Intentions for March 2015
Universal: Scientists: That those involved in scientific research may serve the well-being of the whole human person.
Evangelization: Contribution of women: That the unique contribution of women to the life of the Church may be recognized always.

Comments

Polish
Schoolchildren, attending what they thought was a religious camp
honoring Lent were screaming and in tears when 37-year-old priest Tomas
Wieczorek carried out a mass exorcism. LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The 1,000 young people, from schools in the ... continue reading

Rejecting Pope Francis and consecrating bishops without the approval of the Vatican, the ultra-traditionalist movement "The Resistance" is planning to expand by consecrating again a new generation of bishops. According to one of the French bishops, Jean-Michel Faure, ... continue reading

Excitement
is in the air in Krakow, Poland. The metropolis is readying itself to
host World Youth Day in 2016. As part of the renovations to host the
over two million people who are expected to attend, the city has a new
airport, improved road and rail links, a ... continue reading

The
willful destruction of himself - along with 149 other, innocent human
beings, has the world scrambling for answers. Germanwings co-pilot
Andreas Lubitz, who slammed his plane into mountainside earlier this
week. Killing everyone onboard, remains a ... continue reading

A
terrible tragedy that left 150 people dead may have been the result of a
frightened, insecure man hiding a medical condition. Investigators say
that Germanwings copilot Andreas Lubitz was keeping an unspecified
medical condition secret from others and had a ... continue reading

Investigators have recovered key information from the French Alps wrecked Germanwings Airbus A320's black box and voice recorder. The co-pilot, 28-year-old German, Andreas Lubitz, intentionally locked the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed into a ... continue reading

Nearly
500 British priests have signed a letter urging those attending this
year's family synod to issue a "clear and firm proclamation" upholding
Church teaching on marriage. An extraordinary synod last year provoked
heated debate on the question of whether ... continue reading

150 people were killed in the tragic Germanwings A320 Airbus crash in the snowy French Alps earlier this week. Pope Francis has come forward with some words of comfort for all those involved in the horrific accident. LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Pope Francis ... continue reading

Islamic
State militants returning to the United Kingdom could attack London
Underground trains or football matches with chlorine gas. That is the
frightening estimation from chemical weapons expert Hamish de
Bretton-Gordon, a retired head of chemical and ... continue reading

An airplane carrying 150 people crashed Tuesday in the French Alps. All 144 passengers and six crew members are presumed dead. LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) A Germanwings Airbus A320 was traveling from Barcelona, Spain to Dusseldorf Germany. During mid ... continue reading